Category: Francis Chan

K.P. Yohannan Criticizes Social Programs in His First Book But Spends Millions on Them in India

Will the real K.P. Yohannan please stand up?
In his first book Revolution in World Missions, K.P. Yohannan (through ghostwriter Bill Bray) criticized social programs such as hospitals and schools. However, Yohannan has directed massive amounts of donor money to build and purchase hospitals and schools in India. In the book RWM, Yohannan claims:

One issue involved one of the most far-reaching policy decisions I ever would make. For some years I had suffered deep pain over what appeared to be massive imbalance between our busyness with maintaining Christian institutions, like hospitals and schools, and the proclamation of the Gospel. Both in India and in my travels around Western countries, I constantly uncovered a preoccupation with so-called “ministry” activities operated by Christian workers, financed by church monies, but with little else to distinguish them as Christian.
Far too much of the resources of North American missions is spent on things not related to the primary goal of church planting.(p. 104-105, 2015 edition)

In contrast, Yohannan controls a massive empire of for profit businesses on behalf of himself and the church he runs, Believers’ Church. Twelve schools are listed on The Believers’ Church website, including a medical college and an engineering school. The flagship healthcare institution is his Believers’ Church Medical College and Hospital in the state of Kerala. In recent years, much donor money appears to have gone into the building or purchase of these institutions without the knowledge of American donors.
K.P. Yohannan – Patron
On the Believers’ Church Medical College and Hospital and the Caarmel Engineering School websites, K.P. Yohannan is described as the patron of these institutions.
The engineering school website proclaims Yohannan’s leadership:

Believers Church Caarmel Engineering College, established in 2002, is a leading self-financing private co-educational institution under the Caarmel Educational Trust owned and managed by the Believers Church headquartered at Thiruvalla, Kerala. Dr. K. P. Yohannan, Metropolitan, Believers Church, is the Chairman and Patron of the College. Fr. C. B. Williams is the Manager and Dr. Paul A. J is the Principal of the College.

In contrast to Yohannan’s claim that he doesn’t sit on the boards of any of the trusts in India, he is described as the Chairman and Patron on the school website. The school appears to be quite elaborate with excellent facilities. You can take a virtual tour of the campus online (link).
caarmel engineering
The Medical College and Hospital are quite new with the medical college just opening this year. Again, Yohannan is described as the patron:

Believers Church Medical College Hospital is a healthcare project of Believers Church. The Church is dynamically involved in various nation-building social and educational projects, healthcare initiatives, charitable activities, community development programs, rehabilitation projects and relief works. Dr. K.P. Yohannan, Metropolitan of Believers Church is the patron of the hospital and Dr. George Chandy is leading the project.

The facilities are extraordinary.
BelChurch Hosp
In his RWM book, Yohannan decries such “nation building” programs as causing him “deep pain.” He spends several pages indicating that his ministry will not focus on “social concerns.”

Because of this teaching, many churches and mission societies now are redirecting their limited outreach funds and personnel away from evangelism to something vaguely called “social concern.” Today the majority of Christian missionaries find themselves primarily involved in feeding the hungry, caring for the sick through hospitals, housing the homeless or other kinds of relief and development work. In extreme cases, among nonevangelicals, the logical direction of this thinking can lead to organizing guerrilla forces, planting terrorist bombs or less extreme activities like sponsoring dance and aerobic exercise classes. This is done in the name of Jesus and supposedly is based on His command to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. The mission of the Church, as defined by these humanists, can be almost anything except winning people to Christ and discipling them.
History already has taught us that this gospel—without the blood of Christ, conversion and the cross—is a total failure. In China and India we have had seven generations of this teaching, brought to us by the British missionaries in a slightly different form in the middle of the 19th-century. My people have watched the English hospitals and schools come and go without any noticeable effect on either our churches or society. (p. 109-110, 2015 edition)

 
I don’t know if GFA hosts dance and aerobics, but the group does sponsor a soccer team in Myanmar.
I have written before about GFA’s rubber plantation, but there are many more real estate holdings, according to Narada News in India. Then there is the matter of many tuition-funded residential schools which take in children of all faiths (e.g., the posh Believers Church Residential School).
In his book, Yohannan criticizes British missionaries but he has recreated the same infrastructure using donations from his affiliates around the world. Let me add that I personally have no problem with the work being done in these institutions. The problem is the deception of donors who read RWM and want to get behind a ministry which puts into practice what Yohannan preaches. For this and many reasons, donors should beware and be wise.

Gospel for Asia's Staff Exodus

In 2015, nearly 50 staff and families, many in key positions, left Gospel for Asia.
In a website project of some of the former staffers — Donor Be Wise — the exodus is described in detail.
staff-leaving-gospel-for-asia
This extreme turnover is a signal that something is very wrong at GFA. Regular readers of this blog will know that there is much wrong with the second largest mission group in the country.
The post concludes with just some of the concerns that have prompted GFA staff to seek work and ministry elsewhere.

The reasons so many staff left are many, yet one only has to read through some of the materials published to draw some conclusions as to the climate of the office leading up to the many public reports. Sadly some current staff have chosen not to read anything that has been published.

GFA’s board has not addressed this dire situation. Instead, their response has been to blame bloggers and admit vague inefficiencies. GFA has also spent loads of donor money on a campaign of public relations. For instance, in the face of the recent drought in India, GFA has spent a meager amount on supplying water while inflating their image at home.

Gospel for Asia Files Response in RICO Suit

Wills Point GFA Chapel - Architect website
Wills Point GFA Chapel – Source: Architect website

In filings yesterday regarding the Dickson v. Gospel for Asia RICO lawsuit, Gospel for Asia’s lawyers claim lawyers for Matthew and Jennifer Dickson improperly brought action against a group of GFA employees without specifying their part in the alleged fraud. GFA’s attorneys do not argue the merits of the allegations but rather ask the court to dismiss the suit because such cases must designate how each person participated in fraudulent activities.
Group pleading defenses generally serve the purpose of making it harder to bring suits when individual agency cannot be identified. Plaintiffs are in a bind, they need discovery to prove the extent of coordinated fraud or cover-up of fraud but a court must accept a group pleading doctrine in order to get to discovery. In any case, in my view, the plaintiffs’ lawyers have provided more than enough evidence to proceed to trial against all defendants. To me as a layman, GFA’s response looks like a lawyerly way to avoid facing the evidence.
GFA’s attorneys also defend the arbitration agreement signed by the Dicksons while GFA employees. GFA argues that the Dicksons should be compelled to arbitrate because their donations to GFA were a part of their employment. All employees are expected to donate to GFA which makes disputes arising from their donations a part of the binding arbitration agreement.
I hope this argument doesn’t persuade the court to compel the Dicksons into arbitration. GFA is essentially arguing that employees have no rights and must be compelled to arbitrate allegedly illegal actions on the part of GFA. GFA also argues that their staff must donate to GFA and have no independent existence as a donor. On a related note, those considering working for a Christian ministry should read these agreements carefully. Arbitration agreements should not serve to shield an organization from whistle blowing.
 
Background articles on the GFA RICO suit
May 10, 2016 Reply to Response to Motion – GFA seeks to compel arbitration
May 10, 2016 Reply to Response to Motion – GFA asks court to dismiss suit
GFA RICO suit filed (2/8/16)
Details about RICO suit (2/9/16)
Statement from GFA board blaming bloggers (2/12/16)
Response from GFA’s lawyers (4/21/16)
Response from plaintiffs to GFA’s Motions to Dismiss and Compel Arbitration (4/19/16)

Gospel for Asia Claims Allegations Are False But Then Claims Changes Are Coming; Still Keeping the Audit Secret

If Gospel for Asia wants to show change, then the board of directors should release the most recent audit…
In early March, Gospel for Asia’s board of directors (we still don’t know who they are) posted a statement to donors about how they are responding to GFA’s loss of ECFA accreditation and the resulting questions about their financial integrity.
In it, I find some good signs, if indeed the statements are accurate. GFA claims to have instituted new procedures to insure money is spent where it should be spent. However, on the down side, GFA claims that the allegations which led to the need for these changes are false. Shorter GFA: We never did anything wrong and we won’t do it again.
You can read the statement in full at the GFA website. Below, I intersperse my reactions throughout the statement.

Strengthening Our Commitment to You

Wills Point, Texas – March 10, 2016: A positive effect of a malicious internet attack—and a subsequent series of false accusations—against Gospel for Asia has been the overall review and fine tuning of our administrative and financial processes in order to insure we are above reproach.

My carefully documented posts since April 2015 have been vigorous but not malicious. I have all along the way asked for comment and information from Gospel for Asia. GFA stopped responding to me in May of last year. At one point, a rumor was spread that I was offered a chance by GFA leaders to go to Texas and see the operation. That was false but I indicated that I would be willing to do that. There has been no effort to set the record straight with me or any other Christian media source. Christianity Today, World, Christian Today, etc. have all tried but gotten no answers of substance.
GFA board of directors, I ask you, what allegations are false? You keep saying that publicly and privately but you don’t provide evidence. The ECFA report documents numerous problems, many of which came from this blog. If you are going to make an allegation like that, you should be prepared to back it up. I have provided documentation via publicly available documents, internal budgets, staff meeting disclosures, etc. On the other hand, you have answered with denials without evidence.
The fact that you continue to spin what is obvious to everyone is not a good sign that you are actually following through with all of the “fine tuning” you claim. If you can spin this, then there is no assurance that you are doing what you say you are doing. For years, GFA promised to be following ECFA guidelines. You were not doing that. For years, GFA promised to follow the guidelines of the Office of Personnel Management. You did not comply which resulted in the OPM evicting you from the Combined Federal Campaign. Did you forget about that? Donors are not going to forget. If you really want to fine tune, then stop blaming the messenger for false allegations when it is obvious that many of the allegations have already had consequences in the real world.

On February 12, the board of Gospel for Asia issued a statement regarding our relationship with ECFA. Over Gospel for Asia’s thirty-six-year history with ECFA, our ministry underwent a number of reviews, all of which we passed, but our most recent review (which ECFA initiated as a direct result of false accusations originating on the internet) cited several recommended areas of improvement. Gospel for Asia contested ECFA’s conclusions, but simultaneously values our relationship with ECFA, especially as a founding member of the organization.

Seems pretty clear in this statement that it is fine with you to accuse media of making false allegations but then to ingratiate yourself with ECFA. When I make a claim, you call it a “false allegation.” When ECFA includes the same information in their review and validates my work, you change your tune.
Have you forgotten about your former board member colleague, Gayle Erwin? Erwin was a part of the GFA board for 30 years. He pulled back the curtain and validated media reports. In fact, he provided even more detail about how the board was misled. Are his allegations false? If so, please explain.

Compliance with ECFA standards are a benefit—but not a requirement—for a charity to operate ethically and legally. Even so, Gospel for Asia is working to comply with recommendations made by ECFA.
Today, Gospel for Asia, is pleased to announce we as a ministry have implemented—or are well on our way to implementing—each of these recommendations for improvement.
Some of the changes being implemented include the following:

  1. While Gospel for Asia has always undergone an annual and independent financial audit from a reputable firm, the ministry has now contracted a new auditing firm that ECFA specifically recommended. This firm is well equipped to assist Gospel for Asia in navigating the increasingly complex demands presented by the varying international environments within which we operate.
  2. The aforementioned audit—which is underway—has identified additional safeguards that can be applied to GFA’s accounting and reporting processes. Till now, Gospel for Asia has fully implemented approximately forty percent of these recommendations, and is in the process of implementing all of the recommendations.
  3. In order to assess our overall operations and management, we have engaged a national non-profit expert to conduct an additional management review and in turn recommend changes to policies, procedures and practices throughout the entire organization.
  4. With the help of the auditors and experts referenced above, we have created—and are in the process of implementing—an improved agreement with our field partners. This will allow GFA to more efficiently deploy resources and better communicate regarding the use of all resources.
  5. We are in the process of adding more staff to key administrative and financial divisions in order to strengthen our overall operations.

We believe these changes will strengthen our work and insure that all of it is accomplished according to standards that are above reproach.
Gospel for Asia remains undaunted in its mission to bring the love of Christ to those who have yet to hear his name. We believe the best is yet to come and that now, more than ever before, is the time to share the love and message of Christ among the world’s least reached. These changes will allow us to be even more effective.

Statement from Gospel for Asia’s Board of Directors on Recent Developments

If you really are doing these things, then show some good faith to the public by releasing the now completed audit. If you want to demonstrate that you have turned over a new leaf, then release the audit. I know you have been asked for it and have denied the request. It is business as usual at GFA. You have it but you won’t release it.

GFA board members, you need to realize that donors don’t have to support GFA. There are other organizations which are more transparent and more focused. You must earn the trust of donors again. This spin job isn’t a good start. Just saying you are going to do things doesn’t cut it anymore. You must do something to demonstrate you have learned something.

For starters, release the most recent audit.

Veteran Missionary Claims Co-Authorship of Gospel for Asia Founder K.P. Yohannan's First Three Books

bill bray
Billy Bray – source: Facebook


Billy Bray is a veteran missionary who goes way back with Gospel for Asia’s founder K.P. Yohannan. Bray told me that he was one of the early advocates of the indigenous movement in missions. About his relationship with Yohannan, Bray said:

I actually lived with K.P. for several months in India, and then with K.P. and Gisela in their house for six weeks while writing the first book. I was K.P.’s team leader on the first OM team to Rajasthan and helped recruit him into Operation Mobilization when he was only 15 years of age. So that book — and all three books, were written out of a deep personal friendship with K.P. and his family. In fact, I started work on the first book with him before Gospel for Asia was even named while he was living in Oklahoma, and before there were any GFA staff.

Bray told me he wrote “every word” of K.P. Yohannan’s book Revolution in World Missions and also wrote much of the following two books credited to Yohannan. Even though he said he wrote every word of the book, he didn’t describe it as ghostwriting. Bray told me:

Although I did the first drafts of all three of K.P. Yohannan’s books for Creation House, it was always a collaboration, not ghost-writing. I was paid for the work and given acknowledgement in all three of the books.

Writing “every word” sounded like ghostwriting to me so I was curious about how Bray felt the authorship should have been described. Below is Bray’s description of each book he worked on.

So, if I did the work today, I would insist on the following, more accurate bylines to describe the authorship of these books:
For THE COMING REVOLUTION IN WORLD MISSIONS: God’s Third Wave (c) 1986, it should have been properly attributed “By K.P. Yohannan as told to Billy Bray”. In the Acknowledgements section of the first edition K.P. correctly listed me first among those who helped him editorially using these words, “Of those especially close to me during the long writing, editing and review of this manuscript, I would like to thank William T. Bray, (David and Karen Mains, Gayle Erwin, Dave Hicks and Margaret Bennett for their honest criticism and unwavering support of this entire project).” The parenthesis are mine.
I arranged for David and Karen Mains to write the foreword and for the publication of the book with Cliff Dudley and Bob Walker in Carol Stream where I was working at Christian Life Magazine and Creation House. K.P. also thanks others who were involved in the typing and reading of the manuscript including Larry Jerden and Heidi Chupp (among others).
I was something of a photojournalist in those days and a number of my photos appeared in the first editions of the book, always without credit as well.
For THE ROAD TO REALITY: Coming Home to Jesus from the Unreal World (c) 1988, it should have been properly attributed “By K.P. Yohannan with Billy Bray.” In the acknowledgements, K.P. credits my role as follows “However, I especially want to thank those who were closest to me during the months of writing and editing this manuscript, William T. Bray and Robert Walker.”
Again, I worked with K.P. and Creation house to acquire the endorsement of Erwin Lutzer who was already a fan of K.P. and Bob Finley and Bob Walker — all of which were leading supporters of the indigenous movement in missions by then. This book reflects most accurately the spiritual motivation that both K.P. and I shared at the time, a product of our years under the spiritual influence of Bakht Singh, George Verwer and Bob Finley.
For the third book, then titled WHY THE WORLD WAITS: Exposing the Realty of Modern Missions (c) 1991, it should have properly been attributed to the authors as follows, “By Billy Bray and K.P. Yohannan.” After vicious criticism from the missions establishment at the time, which I thankfully escaped since my name was not on the book, it was revised and published under a softer title.
On the acknowledgements page dated March, 1991, he [Yohannan] first thanked Robert Walker and Murray at Creation for their editorial input and courage and then he credits me only as “Bill — for your help in gathering information and for your most valuable suggestions.” He goes on to thank the staff, and during part of the writing of this book, I was also employed on staff at the GFA headquarters in Carrollton at the Walnut Plaza offices. That is perhaps why he felt less of a need to acknowledge my outlining and writing the first two drafts of this title.
This account, to my best knowledge and recollection, is the truth behind these first three books. I thank the Lord for the privilege of being an intimate part of them — and even though they have been edited and revised over the years by many hands for marketing and fundraising purposes, I stand by the original text in the first editions. I would be happy to discuss them further and hope that the original versions will be preserved as much as possible for academic reasons in the years to come.
And of course, I wish I had 50 cents royalty for every copy sold! It would come in handy now as I am trying to produce a book a year for the cause of Christ as long as the Lord gives me strength and health. One thing I have learned from writing the K.P. Yohannan series is the amazing power of a book to change minds and the course of history!”
“Dear Lord, we acknowledge our commitment to You is so shallow. We say we love You, but our actions betray us. Open our eyes so we see time and eternity as You see it. Forgive us for forgetting we are only strangers and pilgrims on this earth. How foolish we are, oh Lord, to store up treasure on this earth and fight to save our life and preserve it, when You tell us we will lose our life if we try to do that. We ask You, dear Lord, to forgive us and help us to walk in Your footsteps–forsaking all, denying ourselves, carrying our crosses daily and loving You supremely so Your causes might be furthered in this dark and dying world. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.” (Our closing prayer from the first book.)

In addition to Bray, I have spoken to another writer who claims to have written several other Yohannan books. If these claims are true, it may be that the 250 books Yohannan claims to have written are collaborations using his sermons or interviews as source material. Ghostwriting is writing

K.P. Yohannan, source: Youtube
K.P. Yohannan, source: Youtube

original material without attribution so it is hard for me not to use that word.
I asked Bray why Yohannan was chosen as the author when Bray was the writer. He said the publisher and the advocates of the indigenous mission movement wanted an indigenous pastor as the figure head of the movement. Having Yohannan as the author created that perception and recognized his potential.
Since I don’t have much knowledge of the history of missions, I can’t speak to the wisdom of the indigenous movement. However, I can say that what is going on in India now under Gospel for Asia and Believers’ Church seems inconsistent with what I am reading in Revolution.  I hope to explain my reasons for saying that in a future post.
Bray has a book coming out any day now titled How I Discovered the Power of a Yielded Life in which he provides even more detail about his authorship of Yohannan’s books and the indigenous mission movement.
UPDATE:
Here is the Acknowledgments page of the first edition of Revolution in World Missions.
RWMAcknowledgement
I have confirmed with two other people listed on this page and one other who was involved in GFA from the beginning that the information related here by Bill Bray is accurate.